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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. club — for golf
  3. degree — from a university
  4. file — a tool
  5. file — a line of people
  6. bat — the animal
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. file — a document
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. march — the month
  13. club — for dancing
  14. degree — an amount
  15. branch — a division
  16. club — a group
  17. content — the amount
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. march — music
  20. degree — temperature
  21. field — a subject
  22. field — farmland
  23. content — happy
  24. field — for sport

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com